Carrot Cake Recipe

I posted photos of the carrot cake that I made on my Facebook, and a friend asked me to share the recipe, so here it is. Please note that this recipe is originally adopted from http://ieatishootipost.sg/2013/05/carrot-cake-chai-tow-kueh-recipe-with.html (credits to be given to ieatishootipost) with modifications made (written in blue) to the recipe according to our taste and to fill up my 10” by 3” round tin pan based on what my mum taught me. 

Ingredients:

~750g radish after peeling and cutting

500g rice flour

20g tapioca flour (or you can use cornstarch if you don't have tapioca flour)

10g salt

15g sugar

2.05L water (1350ml for radish, 700ml for flour)

Chye Poh (菜脯) - 1 packet

Garlic - 2 cloves

Important Notes:

- Radish: Best is to get Japanese Daikon.  It is more expensive than the local ones which you can buy from the local markets. If you are buying the ones at the market, go for the ones from Cameron highlands instead of the ones from China.  

- Rice flour: Make sure it is the wet milled type and not the dry milled type, which is used to make batter for deep frying.  

Steps:

1) Cut the radish into strips which are about twice the size of matchsticks.  Cutting the radish is better than shredding it because when you shred it, the juices tend to leech out of the radish.  Cutting it also means it is a little thicker and so it gives it a better bite. (I used a food combo processor to cut the radish, saves time!)

2) Mix the rice flour and tapioca flour (or cornstarch) with 700ml water into a thick slurry.

3) Heat up the water in a separate pot and add salt, sugar and alternative to MSG such as dried cuttlefish, konbu, ikan bilis, dried scallops etc to give the stock a bit of umami flavour.  You can of course use a bit of chicken stock powder but just take note that it is as good as adding msg.  So if you are doing it as a shortcut to making your own chicken stock then it is ok, but if you are trying to avoid msg, then it is not ok.

4) Once your stock is ready, add the radishes into the boiling water and cook until the radish turns translucent. (5-10mins)

5) Next add the flour mixture to the radish and stir until it has thickened evenly. (I removed whatever that's added to give the umami flavour from Step 4 above before adding the flour mixture into it.)

6) Oil the pan and then add the thicken mixture. 

7) Steam for 2 hours and leave overnight in the fridge to set.

Steps to prepare the Chye Poh condiments:

Finely chop two cloves of garlic and add them to the Chye Poh.  Add some vegetable oil and cook until the chye poh turns brown.  You may add some sugar if you prefer your chye poh to be sweeter.

Instructions on frying:

*Advise to use a non stick pan.  It actually works pretty well and is more practical for most people.  

1. Cut the carrot cake into 2 cm cubes.  

2. Add oil to the pan and when it is hot, add the cubes of carrot cake.  Press the carrot cake down gently onto the pan so that it breaks.  This creates an irregular surface which enables the chye poh and fish sauce to stick to.  This is much better then chopping the carrot cake with a knife into smaller cubes as you get only smooth surface on your carrot cake that way.  That is why its better to start with larger cubes and break it into irregular shaped smaller chunks. The aim is to have some large pieces where you can taste the rice and radish and some smaller pieces that get charred and coated with chye poh and fish sauce. 

3. Add fish sauce and continue to fry (I did not add fish oil though as I don't want to buy it just for frying carrot cake.)

4. Add Chye Poh mixture and continue to fry till it develops and nice crust. 

5. Add an egg (I added some prawns as well before adding the egg) and fry till brown.  Serve with chopped spring onions and a dash of white pepper.

Black Version

With the black version, add the dark sauce towards the end of the frying process.  Fry till you develop some crust on the carrot cake and then reduce the heat and add the sweet black sauce.  Toss until evenly coasted.  Then turn off the fire and add some more sweet sauce, stir fry till even and then serve. Note:  Sweet black sauce turns bitter if subjected to too much heat. (I did not add sweet black sauce as I don't like my carrot cake to be sweet, instead I added chilli to make it a bit spicy.)

Final note: I fry the carrot cake 1 portion by 1 portion to tailor the taste to different family members.

Carrot Cake (3rd attempt) on 12 Oct 2014

It's been months since I last made carrot cake, so finally decided to make it, especially I have so many packets of chye poh in my fridge - 2 opened packets and 2 unopened packets. I think my mum might have opened another packet when she couldn't find or didn't notice the 1st opened packet.

This time, I made the carrot cake based on a recipe from ieatishootipost but I modified it according to our taste and to fill up a 10" by 3" round tin pan based on what my mum taught me. Verdict? Well, it's a success! The carrot cake turns out to be more firm as compared to my past 2 attempts, and of course, I made it without my mum's help. :)

Rainbow Cheesecake (4th attempt) on 28 Sep 2014

I had tendered my resignation as I decided to become a SAHM to look after my P1 son and have more time to teach or revise with him for his study. Hence, my last day of work is 30 Sep, and I decided to make some cheesecake for my colleagues.

For easy serving, I had chosen to make individual portions. This time, I used 2 flavours of yogurt - Mixed Fruit and Nata de Coco. What did I learn this time? Well, I realised that the cheesecake wasn't as "smooth" looking as my 3rd attempt; there's coconut flakes. I realised that it must be the Nata de Coco (means cream coconut) flavour of yogurt that I added in. Before I realised this, I thought what had gone wrong this time round? hahaha... Hence, I should avoid using Nata de Coco flavour of yogurt if I want a smoother looking cheesecake.

Making Snow Skin Mooncake

There was Teacher's Day celebration at my girl's childcare centre. We were supposed to attend the celebration but we were informed by my son's school that he's sick, so we had to rush down to his school to pick him up. Hence, we had to pick up our girl first since her childcare centre is near our working place. When we reached her childcare centre, they were having mooncake making as Mooncake Festival is just round the corner. The teachers asked us to make mooncake together with our girl first before leaving the centre, so I did.

Mooncake making isn't difficult for me at all, especially the snow skin ones. When I was still schooling, I had been helping my mum to make snow skin mooncakes to sell to make extra income for the household. Hence, when I saw the teachers and some parents sprinkled flour into the mould, I suggested that they should tap the flour on the skin instead of sprinkling flour into the mould. 

Why do we need to tap flour onto the skin and why cannot sprinkle flour into the mould? We need to tap flour on the skin so that the mooncake would not stick to the mould, and hence, it can "drop" out from the mould when you shake the mould sideways. We do not sprinkle flour into the mould as it would cover up the pattern in the mould, and the end product would not have a nice defined pattern on it.

Although I have not made mooncakes for a long time, I still can remember my mum's teaching. See the end products below.

Rainbow Cheesecake (3rd attempt) on 26 Jul 2014

My son had a gathering with his pre-school classmates, and it would be a potluck picnic gathering at West Coast Park. I decided to make Rainbow Cheesecake, and this time, I made few changes as compared to my last 2 attempts.

First, I decided to make individual portions so that it would be easier to serve (no need to cut), especially it's for a picnic at an outdoor venue. Secondly, I went hunting for Philadelphia brand for the cream cheese to see if it really tastes better than the "brandless" cream cheese that I bought at Phoon Huat for the last 2 attempts. I said "hunting" as Rivervale Mall NTUC doesn't sell those blocks of Philadelphia cream cheese; they only sell the spread type. Thirdly, I choose a flavour of yogurt - Mixed Fruit, that should be less sour, in my opinion, as compared to Strawberry or Mango flavour. Since I choose the Mixed Fruit flavour yogurt, I can choose any fruit to decorate the top of the cheesecake, so I decorated with canned longan and nata de coco.

Top View

Side View

Outcome? It was well received at the picnic, especially the parents. My son loves it! I tried it too, and have to say that using Philadelphia brand for the cream cheese does make the cheescake tastes a lot nicer! The Mixed Fruit flavour of yogurt also makes the cheesecake less sour as compared to my last 2 attempts.

I had also made 2 other changes but I don't think these changes had any impact to the taste or look. I had invested in a Kitchen Aid Mixer, so it was my KA's maiden mixing! I only used 3 colours since individual serving is a lot smaller than a whole cake, which I used 6 colours.

Mixing using Kitchen Aid Mixer

Colours - Blue, Green & Orange

To read about my last 2 attempts on making Rainbow Cheesecake, please go to 

1st attempt - http://jenniferphua.blogspot.sg/2013/12/rainbow-strawberry-cheesecake-on-18-dec.html

2nd attempt - http://jenniferphua.blogspot.sg/2013/12/rainbow-mango-cheesecake-2nd-attempt-on.html

As for the recipe, please go to http://www.thebakingbiatch.com/2013/10/cynthias-rainbow-strawberry-cheesecake.html.

Kueh Lapis Recipe

Please note that this recipe is from my mum's recipe book, which she learnt at a Community Centre many years ago, and we have fine tuned it along the way to suit our taste. If you find the recipe similar to yours, it is just pure coincidence, afterall everyone of us learnt from somewhere and it could probably be from the same source.

Ingredients:

20 egg yolks

5 egg whites

550g salted butter (I used SCS butter, ~2 ¼ of 250g block)

300g castor sugar

170g flour

8 tbsp condensed milk

3 tbsp brandy or rum

1 tsp vanilla extract (I used Nielsen Massey pure vanilla extract)

1½ tsp ground mixed spices (I used ½ tsp McCormick Ground Cinnamon, ½ tsp McCormick Ground Nutmeg, ½ tsp vanilla extract)

Steps:
1) Beat egg yolks with sugar until thick creamy. Set it aside for use later.

2) Beat butter for a while, add in the condensed milk and continue to beat till creamy. 

3) Add (2) to (1). Fold in flour and vanilla extract.

4) Add the egg whites in, and mix slowly until all the egg whites are dissolved.

5) Add brandy or rum, and mix well.

6) Divide the mixture into 2 equal portions. Add the mixed spices to one portion and mix well. The other portion is plain.

7) Line a 9" square baking tin with baking paper and grease it. You can use the butter wrapper to grease it. Heat the tin.

8) Scoop ~3-4 tbsp (I used Chinese soup spoon) of the plain or spiced mixture, and use the back of the spoon to smooth out the mixture, reaching all corners of the tin. 

9) Bake the first layer using bottom and top fire. Other layers only top fire or grill.

10) After each layer is baked, remove from oven, 
- use a satay stick or toothpick to remove the air bubbles, 
- use lapis press to press the layer, 
- apply brandy or rum with a cooking brush on the layer (most recipes out there do not have this step, so you may omit this step but it would greatly enhance the fragrance & taste), 
- scoop ~3 tbsp of the mixture (alternating between the plan and spiced mixture) and smooth it out reaching all corners of the tin. 

If you want each layer to look even and nicer, you may wish to weigh each layer, ~125g for first layer and ~100g for subsequent layers, instead of using my estimation method.

Notes:
I'm using a Panasonic Microwave Oven, so these are the baking modes and temperature that I use:
- Preheat oven in conventional bake mode,
- use conventional bake 170 deg cel, ~5 mins for first layer,
- use grill low fire ~3½ mins+- for subsequent layers,
- use grill low fire ~2½ mins for last layer followed by conventional bake 150 deg cel for 1-2mins.
*As the oven gets heated up, the time taken to bake each layer may get shorter. Hence, you may wish to bake with shorter timing and check if the layer is brown enough. If the layer is not brown enough, continue to bake for a while more until you're satisfied with the brownness.

Kueh Lapis on 11 Jan 2014

I had not bake Kueh Lapis for a long long time since my last oven spoilt and I had my first child. Recently, I'm into a baking mood, so I gotten a new toy - a Kitchen Aid! A hot pink one that was selling at a promo price of $648 at Best Denki, so I must do more baking now to make my investment worthwhile!

Overall, it's a success, albeit too oily despite that I already cut down on the butter, and maybe can also cut a bit more sugar or condensed milk. 

I would share the recipe in another post. :)

Carrot Cake (2nd attempt) on 25 Dec 2013

Suddenly felt like eating fried carrot cake, so I bought the ingredients to make carrot cake. Yes, I'm nuts to be doing this late at night when I was just busy doing the cheesecake earlier on in the afternoon. Tired? Not really when the passion for cooking/baking gets turned on, lol!

This would be my 2nd attempt doing it. As mum now stays with me during weekdays to help look after my son, I have an advisor who can advise me on cooking and baking! :)

I felt that the mixture was a little bit watery despite I have cut down the amount of water from the original recipe, and concerned that it would turn out to be soft like my 1st attempt, I called my mum to come and take a look. She took over and poured more flour and water in. She advised me to put in more flour and water so that it can fill up the pan more. When I asked her for the proportion of flour vs water, she told me "agar agar". Oh well... older generation tends to cook or bake based on "agaration" and mind you, their agaration makes wonderful cooking and baking!

How it turned out? Of course, it looked more solid, not as soft as the one that I steamed on my 1st attempt. It's still not perfect though, can be a little bit harder. Well, I shall try again soon, before Chinese New Year. Afterall, this is one of my favourite dishes! I shall continue to make it till I find the perfect "hardness". :)

Rainbow Mango Cheesecake (2nd attempt) on 25 Dec 2013

It's Christmas Day! I invited 2 friends to my house for a no-baking session, doing the Rainbow Mango Cheesecake, and a playdate session for the children.

I thought this time round, the cheesecake would look much nicer than my 1st attempt, but who knows, the result turned out to be otherwise, sigh... I realised it was a lot more difficult to pour the mixture into the baking pan as it seems a lot more solidified than my previous attempt. It also looked more lumpy. I think it's probably that I didn't mix the cheese cream well enough, and it could be that my food combo processor is going to "die" soon.

Nonetheless, it still tastes cheesecake. :)

It was a Rainbow Mango Cheesecake as my son wanted mango flavoured yoghurt as he doesn't like strawberry. I thought he would eat more this time, but he just ate 1 small slice! Mei mei who is not even 2 years old was a lot more appreciative than the gor gor!

Updates on 29 Dec: It's still me and my girl who finished up the whole cake! I told my boy that I'm not going to make this anymore since he only takes a miserable small portion of it, at least not for near future! Maybe next time, I would do mini versions instead that I can bring out to treat colleagues or friends, that is if it turns out presentable, lol!

Rainbow Strawberry Cheesecake (1st attempt) on 18 Dec 2013

Finally bought all the items needed to make this no-bake Rainbow Strawberry Cheesecake. This was my 1st attempt trying this out, using recipe from http://www.thebakingbiatch.com/2013/10/cynthias-rainbow-strawberry-cheesecake.html.

Before I planned to try making this, I only have 2 mixing bowls (the white ones bought from NTUC). To make it looks nice, I actually invested in getting more mixing bowls (the blue & black ones) and spree those from Amazon.

It wasn't easy to control pouring the cream cheese mixture in to have nice looking effect. Nonetheless, I think it looks not too bad for a 1st attempt. 

I agree with Cynthia from The Baking Biatch that mixing bowls with spout do help to control the pouring of the cream cheese mixture. This was my experience when using these mixing bowls. The white ones don't have a very good profile, whereas the blue & black ones have a deeper profile. Hence, it is easier to control when pouring the mixture from the blue & black ones as compared to the white ones. 

Fried Carrot Cake on 27 Sep 2013

This is a continuation from my last post on http://jenniferphua.blogspot.sg/2013/09/carrot-cake-on-25-sep.html.

I fried the condiment - garlic and chye poh, which smells so nice!!!

I fried the carrot cake with the garlic chye poh condiment, prawn, and egg, sprinkled some spring onions and added a dash of pepper. Having fried the garlic chye poh condiment first before adding it to the fried carrot cake tastes better than what my mum does, which is simply adding the washed chye poh to the carrot cake and fries together.

Overall, it's a successful first attempt to steam carrot cake and fry it, but definitely room for improvement as I find the carrot cake a bit soft, so I'll probably have to adjust the recipe a bit to add in lesser water. 

Carrot Cake (1st attempt) on 26 Sep 2013

My mum has been a great cook, and she's been steaming carrot cake for the past many years. I did not learn from her how to do so, but I've been wanting to learn to do it for quite some time. Since I've been into a cooking mood lately and found this appetising looking recipe on http://ieatishootipost.sg/2013/05/carrot-cake-chai-tow-kueh-recipe-with.html, I went hunting for the ingredients and finally made it. Hopefully it tastes nice as it had smelled nice!

The raddish that I bought was much bigger, weighing approximately 750g. Hence, I adjusted the recipe accordingly, and the amount of mixture that I got was just nice to almost filling up a 10" by 3" round tin pan.

The steamed product (not the final product yet as it still need to be put into fridge to set it overnight and fried it):

Hopefully, I have time to fry the condiment - garlic and chye poh tomorrow. I would not be putting pork lard though as it's better to be a bit health conscious, especially cooking for my young ones. After frying the condiment, hopefully I can fry the carrot cake and taste it! 

To be continued...

Steamed Egg Cakes (1st attempt) on 22 Sep 2013

I made these steamed egg cakes with some help from my little chef (my son). 

The recipe is from Angela Chia, and you can find it on http://chiaangela.blogspot.sg/2013/08/cute-ladybug-steamed-egg-cakes.html and https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151630744344858. I fine tuned it a bit to make it less sweet, so mine is only 150g of sugar.

Before steaming the egg cakes:

Steaming done:

The design doesn't look as good as it's my first time using a piping bag, but at least it was a success with the design able to stay on top.

I noticed that the 1st batch of steamed egg cakes tasted less sweet than those in the 2nd batch, so probably would have to stir the mixture a bit before scooping and putting the mixture into the cupcake liner each time.

I shall try it again soon. :)